Welcome to our new home on consortium.lgbt
About The Partnership
Reducing health inequalities and improving access to health and social care for LGB&T people
The National LGBT Partnership was established in early 2010, in order reduce health inequalities and challenge homophobia, biphobia and transphobia within public services. The Partnership combines the expertise of thirty-eight key LGBTQIA+ organisations across England, and works closely with many more. To read more about the partners, click here.
The partners have a long history of service delivery, working with LGBTQIA+ people both locally and nationally. Services include 1-2-1 counselling, befriending, peer-support groups, helplines, community leader programmes, testing, advocacy, youth-work, HIV, housing support, drug and alcohol interventions, and much more. This enables the Partnership to act as a catalyst and connector, putting LGBTQIA+ people and their issues firmly on the agenda of a wide range of decision makers.
Further organisations (both LGBT and non-LGBT) are invited to contribute to seminars and project work, based upon their particular skills and expertise.
The Partnership is a Sector Strategic Partner of the Department of Health, Public Health England and NHS England, collaborating with a wide range of organisations as part of the Health and Wellbeing Alliance. It has experience of successfully influencing policy, practice and actions of Government, statutory bodies, and others. You can sign up to the HWA newsletter by clicking here and follow the work of the HWA on twitter using the hashtag #HWAlliance.
The Partnership has established a close working relationship with the National LGBT Health Adviser, Dr Michael Brady. We meet with Dr Brady and his team regularly and frequently and act as a conduit for the relationship between Dr Brady’s Office (and by extension NHSE) and the LGBT+ VCSE Sector.
We organise and arrange engagement events of various formats and sizes between the sector and Dr Brady’s Office, and work closely with him and his colleagues to inform, support and provide direction for his workplan.
Prior to Dr Brady coming in to post we gathered a group of LGBT+ organisations and developed a list of our priorities. This can be found here.
The Partnership has identified five key objectives within health and social care:
1. Act as a catalyst and connector
We’ll put LGBTQIA+ people firmly on the agenda of decision-makers; increasing visibility through attending meetings, responding to consultations, advising and collaboration.
2. Drive forward Sexual Orientation Monitoring and Trans Status Monitoring
We’ll support the implementation of monitoring, which is vital in understanding LGBTQIA+ people’s needs, especially when often: “If you aren’t counted, you don’t count”.
3. Reduce health inequalities
We’ll challenge the impact of homophobia, biphobia and transphobia, and work to help reduce significant health and social care inequalities faced by LGBTQIA+ people.
4. Improve access to health and social care services
We’ll highlight the many barriers (both perceived and actual), which limit LGBTQIA+ people accessing the support they need; identifying solutions and best practice.
5. Ensure LGBT people’s voices are heard
We’ll seek out and use the real voices and lived experiences of LGBTQIA+ people within our communities, to inform people in positions of power and influence.
In 2016, the Partnership commissioned a strategic review, undertaking consultation with both external and internal stakeholders. A summary report on the review can be found here.